GOPEE SCOON: IMPROVED NON ENERGY SECTOR

CCNTV6

The Trade Minister boasts of increased production in the non-energy sector and blames a decrease in the value of exports to price dips for energy products. Here's more on that story.

Transcript

00:00The trade and industry minister came out on the defensive over the performance of his sector.

00:06The private sector is not on the leader of the opposition, is not on the two factions,

00:12and is not on the UNC. All right? And I get the whispers and the statements and the comments and

00:20so on all of the time. They want the PNM to stay in power. The private sector always does better

00:28under PNM governments. The non-energy sector growth minus petrochemicals, she says,

00:35is evidence of business buoyancy and diversification. All of this talk about 6,000

00:41businesses closed down and so on, that is not at all reflected in the figures. You're completely

00:46wrong on that. What we have is a burgeoning financial sector, business doing well,

00:52the financial and insurance activities also doing well.

00:56Gopi Scoon admits to and explains the decrease in exports from $89 billion to $53 billion

01:05in the past fiscal year. We always speak the truth on this side,

01:10so that always speak the truth. And so you will notice as I speak about export figures,

01:16total export figures, you will notice a decline from $89 billion to $53 billion. That is only so

01:23we know because of the lower energy prices and petrochemical prices, commodity prices. And even

01:32on the non-energy side, the lower prices fetched for iron and steel. I could tell you that iron

01:38and steel went down by $1.8 billion, and that is because of the glut in the steel market.

01:44The importation of food items, the minister says, has been on the decline

01:48due to an increase in local production and innovation.

01:52One of the new products is the locally made ghee. That's dairy value added. The locally made ghee

01:59made by a company, Farm Fresh Dairy Products, that is sold in all of the Pooja stores.

02:06And we are going to help Farm Fresh Dairy Products so that they can expand their production

02:14and displace the import of ghee. I want to encourage everybody,

02:18all the citizens to buy local ghee from the Pooja stores.

02:23For Rishi Tiwari, Rupna Rai, TV6 News.

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